Really Tim Armstrong? With a Period?
There are times when I have no choice but to simply sigh and wonder how some people are CEOs of major companies and I have yet to hit the jackpot. Take, for instance, Tim Armstrong – CEO of AOL.
The New AOL Brand Identity
Over the past couple of week, as he attempts to save AOL from dropping further behind its competitors, he’s come up with a whole slew of oddball ideas.
First, he’s “updated” their image. Check out the new brand identity logos as found on Businesswire. That’s right. There’s a goldfish, a purple sponge, a figure with a ball of yarn for a head and a random green squiggle. Shouldn’t there be a cat chasing these things around? Not to mention that the company name has been shifted from the AOL we all know and love (note all capital letters) to a cute looking “Aol.” Yes. With the period. That’s right. Just like a one word sentence. What??
As Slate columnist Farhad Manjoo aptly points out in his article “AOL’s Latest Dumb Business Plan“, it sounds remarkably like A-Hole without the ‘h’.
Manjoo goes on to discuss his opinions on Armstrong’s new business plan which rests on “…a high-tech system for mass-producing news articles, entertainment and other online content.” This is Armstrong’s key strategy as he aims to “…make AOL, which has been losing visitors and revenue, a magnet for both advertisers and consumers by turning it into the top creator of digital content.” as discussed in a recent Wall Street Journal article.
That’s right. Armstrong wants to mass-produce content, while still being a “… top creator of digital content.” (emphasis added). To start with, when I read about high volume content creation, my mind jumps to YouTube. Or perhaps the blogosphere. But certainly not a news source. News sources may create a lot of well written, credible articles. But I’m sorry, they don’t take the cake in quantity. What’s more, mass-produced news seems like a terribly bad idea.
So from what I can tell, in order to overcome the small hurdle of having to pay a finite number of editors and writers to cover stories, Armstrong and his company are discussing using the thousands of readily available, want to be published, never written before people who want nothing more than to get published. Armstrong’s model will be to see breaking news, put out a call for articles, and hope that they will get first hand accounts, photos, video, hell — anything really from the community. And I’m guessing for free.
How’s that for reliable news? How’s that for responsible journalism? Instead of rewarding high quality journalism, they are looking for the largest volume of quick stories, not the best.
And lets not forget Armstrong’s goal of making Aol. a “… magnet for both advertisers and consumers…” With this ideal in mind, and the mass-produced news, we should all look forward to a shitty news site with tons of ads. Great. Sign me up…
So, who is going to unsubscribe from the new A-Hole?
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